Thursday, September 15, 2011

Healthy Chips!

There's a vegan version of everything — sour cream, cheddar cheese, beef tips, chicken drumsticks. But until now, there's been no vegan ranch-flavored chips. For years, I've lamented this sad fact. When John of the Laziest Vegans in the World interviewed me a few months ago, he asked what product I'd like to see veganized, I answered "sour cream and onion potato chips or ranch tortilla chips." That's the only thing I miss anymore.

But lo and behold, there ARE dairy-free ranch chips! But they're not made from potatoes or tortillas. They're made from kale!!! Rhythm Superfoods sent me a few bags of their healthy chips to try, and one was Kool Ranch Kale Chips. They also threw in a bag of Hickory BBQ Sweet Potato Chips.

Of course, I tore into the kale chips immediately. And wow. Just wow. These super-crispy kale chips are coated in a magical mixture of cashews, zucchini, onion, nutritional yeast, garlic, parsley and other stuff that makes them taste almost exactly like Cool Ranch Doritos.

But unlike the Doritos, these babies are loaded with nutrients. One serving has 112 percent of your daily recommended vitamin A and 80 percent of your vitamin C. I wish I had, like, 20 more bags of these since there are only 2 servings per bag. They're not cheap at around $7 a bag. But these are crispier than any I've been able to make at home in my dehydrator.

The sweet potato chips weren't quite as impressive though. Good, but not on the level of the ranch kale chips. Unlike other brands of sweet p chips, these are raw and not fried. So they're plenty healthy, but they could use a little more of the hickory BBQ flavoring.

As you can see from this picture, only one of the four chips on this plate is super-coated. That one was delicious! But Rhythm should work on making sure the chips are more evenly coated. Nonetheless, I feel much better about snacking on these at my desk than I would, say, regular old BBQ potato chips. They have 310 percent of your daily vitamin A, and the whole bag is only 110 calories.

If I were to shell out the big bucks on more, I'd put my money on the kale chips all day long. And don't worry, I'm pretty sure a kale chip splurge is in my future. They also have kale chips in Mango Habanero, Bombay Curry, Texas BBQ, and Zesty Nacho. The sweet tater ones are available in BBQ and Sea Salt. There's a store locater on their website or you can order directly from the web. They aren't available in Memphis yet.

I love the kale. I also didn't like the sweet potato chips. Habanero Mango is DISGUSTING!!!! It tastes like a fruit roll-up with an after spice. Texas BBQ is off the chain. I love that it's not "cream"-based but tomato-based and it's spicy. Bombay curry had too much curry for me, but that's because I don't think of curry as a snack--more of a meal flavor. I must say that Kool Ranch and Texas BBQ are my faves.

We have those at WF in LR. I love them. I do hate that they're so pricey, but I just don't have time to make homemade ones as much as I'd like to! I actually do like the sweet potato chips, too, but I've only had sea salt. I am bad about wanting corn chips with my sandwiches, etc. so they help me stay away from them a little more.

My name is Bianca ...

About Me

I'm an 11-year vegan, 21-year vegetarian from the Mid-South, not too far from the muddy banks of the Mississippi River. And that means cornbread, butter beans, and collard greens.
These days, I live in Memphis. Check out my cookbook — Cookin' Crunk. It's filled with yummilicious veganized soul food and country classics.